Richard W. Rahn, an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, writes an excellent Wall Street Journal op-ed (subscription required) today on deficit spending. During political campaigns, no other economic policy is subject to more demagoguery than deficit spending. Contrary to the rhetoric of most politicians, deficit spending is not inherently bad and, in some cases, absolutely essential. As Rahn points out:

As long as individuals or businesses have a yearly rise in income, they can take on more debt without getting into trouble, provided the cost of the additional debt service does not rise faster than the rise in income. The same is true for government. Forty years ago, in 1962, federal government debt as a percentage of GDP was 43.6%. It fell to a low of 23.8% in 1974, rose to a high of 49.5% in 1993, and then dropped back to 33.1% in 2001. Currently, it is about 35% of GDP, and the CBO projects it to fall back to 30.7% in 2013.
At the end of World War II, U.S. government debt was more than 100% of GDP. That level of debt was borne by the generations that came after the war, but clearly we are all better off because the war was won with debt financing. We are also better off because the Reagan administration engaged in a military buildup, financed partly through increased debt, to win the Cold War. Placing a debt burden on future generations is not wrong if it is done to help secure their liberty and prosperity.

Amen!